Thursday, January 24, 2008
It's the holistic approach that works!
A Cochrane Systematic Review suggests that antioxidant vitamins C and E might not protect women from pre-eclampsia! When are researchers going to recognise that adding a pinch of that and a taste of something else is NOT the way to optimise reproductive outcomes or general health and wellbeing for that matter? It's a holistic approach that involves ALL of the nutritional factors, healthy lifesyle, clean environment and right attitude. Studying one or two nutrients in isolation is meaningless, and denies the power of holistic, complementary medicine. I would have expected more of the Cochrane Review - sadly study protocols like these smack of the way Big Pharma conducts its drug research.
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There are 94 naturally occuring elements on this earth; the human body is composed of somewhere around 30 of them, yet 6 of these elements alone make up 99% of the human body.
Put these chemicals together in many different combinations and there is almost an impossible number of potential chemicals being formed, reformed, broken down and used by the human body.
Now modern medicine and Big Pharma try to reduce nutrition to the simplest terms. The lowest common denominator. Nutrition to many is a reductionist theory. Vitamin X will treat X illness. However, Vitamin Y is of no use in treating syndrome A. We see the same in herbs, (minerals and even medicine) - Echinacea of no value in treating Rhinophyma, which the educated naturopath already knew.
It seems to me that this reductionist approach to medicine may be designed to slowly and insidiously cast doubt about the efficacy of vitamins, minerals and herbs. Or as Jan pointed out, it clearly shows how Big Pharma conducts its own drug trials.
Thankfully, more people are becoming educated to the manner in which Big Pharma seems to be controlling medicine and these people are looking for more holistic approaches.
However, these people also need to realise that we are a cocktail of hormones and biochemical pathways that plays in a constant, a complex and a merry dance within our bodies - that one solitary vitamin, mineral, herb or nutrient will never do justice.
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